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Ambience, space and atmosphere are all pivotal to making your techno track translate and resonate with people. Here’s a method of concocting some serious vibes…
> Step by step 3. Develop an atmosphere
1 Take an element from your track in order to create an ambience in the main key of your track. A few elements that could work are a vocal, synth part or percussion loop. If you are using a vocal sample, cut the audio down to your favourite section and copy/paste this section so it repeats in a consistent pattern for an eight-bar loop. If you are using MIDI, repeat the MIDI note several times.
2 Drop your DAW’s reverb or another reverb that has a freeze function onto the track, and increase the size and decay time. Turn the D/W to 100% and play your loop. Once you hear a section you like, press Freeze on the Reverb.
3 Create a new audio track, and route the audio from the track with reverb to the new track. Record in the audio from the track with reverb to the new track. Make the atmosphere sound even more interesting by adding a shaping plugin like ShaperBox on the recording to give it a groove. In ShaperBox, try using a volume effect and apply a rhythmic pattern.
4 Add a filter like Simplon or EQ to the track, and use low and highpass filters to cut the low and high frequencies to shape the sound. Add another reverb to push the sound to the side and back even more
5 Enhance the stereo width of the atmosphere by adding a stereowidening plugin like iZotope Imager, or StereoSavage. Try using the rotation effect for a natural-sounding panning effect. Play the atmosphere in your mix, set it to the correct volume and adjust the EQ to taste.
6 To create an atmosphere with dark reverb, choose a synth loop to work with and add a reverb as an insert on the channel. Adjust decay time to 3.62ms and turn D/W down. To go darker, cut high frequencies by using the high-cut filter on the
